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"Vassar Carlton Clements (April 25, 1928 – August 16, 2005) was a Grammy Award- winning American jazz, swing, and bluegrass fiddler. Clements has been dubbed the Father of Hillbilly Jazz, an improvisational style that blends and borrows from swing, hot jazz, and bluegrass along with roots also in country and other musical traditions. Biography Clements was born in Kinard, Florida,Vassar Clements at answers.com but grew up in Kissimmee. He taught himself to play the fiddle at age 7, learning "There's an Old Spinning Wheel in the Parlor" as his first song. Soon, he joined with two first cousins, Red and Gerald, to form a local string band. In his early teens Clements met Bill Monroe and the Blue Grass Boys when they came to Florida to visit Clements' stepfather, a friend of fiddler Chubby Wise. Clements was impressed with his playing. In late 1949 Wise left Monroe's group, and the 21 year-old Clements traveled by bus to ask for an audition. When told he would have to return the next day, Clements was crestfallen, lacking the money for either a hotel room or return bus trip. Monroe gave him some money to a night's lodging, and the next day Clements auditioned and was hired. He remained with Monroe for seven years, recording with the band in 1950 and 1951. He soon became one of the most distinctive, inventive, and popular fiddlers in bluegrass music. His virtuosity and ability to blend several different genres, including swing and hot jazz, made him a pioneer in country music and much sought-after session musician. Between 1957 and 1962, he was a member of the bluegrass band Jim and Jesse & the Virginia Boys. He also gained recognition joining with the popular bluegrass duo of Flatt and Scruggs on the popular theme to the hit television sitcom The Beverly Hillbillies. Earl Scruggs' path-breaking banjo style had premiered with Bill Monroe in the late 1940s, and thereafter gained widespread renown with Lester Flatt and the Foggy Mountain Boys. Stardom was within his grasp. By the mid-1960s, however, his struggles with alcohol left him making his living in blue-collar trades, being employed briefly at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida as a plumber, in a Georgia paper mill, and as switchman for Atlantic Coast Line Railroad. He even sold insurance and once operated a convenience store while owning a potato chip franchise in Huntsville, Alabama. Sobering up, he returned to Nashville in 1967, where he became a much sought- after studio musician. After a brief touring stint with Faron Young he joined John Hartford's Dobrolic Plectral Society in 1971 when he met guitarist Norman Blake and Dobro player Tut Taylor, and recorded Aereo-Plain, a widely acclaimed "newgrass" album that helped broaden the bluegrass market and sound. After less than a year he joined up with Earl Scruggs. His 1972 work with the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band on their album Will the Circle be Unbroken earned even wider acclaim, and he later worked on the Grateful Dead's Wake of the Flood and Jimmy Buffett's A White Sport Coat and a Pink Crustacean. Within the next two years, Clements would cut his first solo album. In 1973 he joined and toured with the bluegrass supergroup Old & In the Way with Jerry Garcia, David Grisman, Peter Rowan, and John Kahn; their self-titled live album Old & In the Way was released in 1975. Clements in 1974 In 1974 he lent his talents to Highway Call, a solo album by former Allman Brothers Band guitarist Dickey Betts. He was considered by many to be an outstanding fiddle virtuoso and he described his talent saying, In his 50-year career he played with artists ranging from Woody Herman and the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band to the Grateful Dead, Linda Ronstadt, and Paul McCartney, and earned at least five Grammy Award nominations and numerous professional accolades. He once recorded with the pop group the Monkees by happenstance, when he stayed behind after an earlier recording session. He also appeared in Robert Altman's 1975 film Nashville and Alan Rudolph's 1976 film, Welcome to L.A.. He made a duet album with Stéphane Grappelli Together at Last in 1987. In 2004 he performed in concert with jazz quartet Third Stream – in which a video documentary of the concert was done with Jim Easton (guitar), Tom Strohman (sax), Jim Miller (bass), and John Peifer (drums). http://www.vassarclements.com/tourdates_2004.html Though he played numerous instruments, Clements indicated that he chose the fiddle over guitar recalling that, "I picked up a guitar and fiddle and tried them both out. The guitar was pretty easy, but I couldn't get nothing out of the fiddle. So every time I'd see those instruments sitting side by side, I'd grab that fiddle." Big band and swing music were considerable influences upon his style and musical development, and he said that, "Bands like Glenn Miller, Les Brown, Tommy Dorsey, Harry James and Artie Shaw were very popular when I was a kid. I always loved rhythm, so I guess in the back of my mind the swing and jazz subconsciously comes out when I play, because when I was learning I was always trying to emulate the big-band sounds I heard on my fiddle." Vassar Clements played on over 200 albums, including nearly 40 on which he starred or was featured. His albums often featured newgrass style music and what Clements called "Hillbilly Jazz". His last album, Livin' With the Blues, released in 2004, was his only blues recording; it featured guest appearances by Elvin Bishop, Norton Buffalo, Maria Muldaur, and others. His 2005 Grammy Award for Best Country Instrumental Performance was for "Earl's Breakdown," by the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, and featured Clements, Earl Scruggs, Randy Scruggs, and Jerry Douglas. Clements, whose last performance was February 4, 2005 in Jamestown, N.Y., died on August 16, 2005 at age 77 of lung cancer. Discography *Vassar Mercury Records *Superbow Mercury Records *Southern Waltzes Rural Rhythm *Crossing the Catskills (1973) Rounder Records *Vassar Clements, John Hartford, Dave Holland (1988) Rounder Records *Vassar Clements MCA Records *The Bluegrass Session Flying Records *Grass Routes Rounder Records *Saturday Night Shuffle – A Celebration of Merle Travis Shanachie Records *Hillbilly Jazz Flying Fish Records *Hillbilly Jazz Rides Again (1986) Flying Fish Records *New Hillbilly Jazz Shikata Records *Together at Last (Stephane Grappelli & Vassar Clements) Flying Fish Records *Nashville Jam Flying Fish Records *Westport Drive Mind Dust Records *The Man, The Legend Vassillie Productions *Country Classics Vassillie Productions *Vassar Clements Reunion with Dixie Gentlemen Old Homestead *Once in a While (Jam with Miles Davis' ex-band members) Flying Fish Records *Live in Telluride (1979) Vassillie Productions *Music City USA Vassillie Productions *Old & In the Way (1975) Rounder Records *That High Lonesome Sound (1996) Acoustic Disc *Breakdown (1997) Acoustic Disc *Live at the Boarding House (2008) Acoustic Disc *Live at the Boarding House: The Complete Shows (2013) Acoustic Disc *The Bluegrass Sessions: Tales from the Acoustic Planet, Vol. 2 (with Béla Fleck) (1999) Warner Bros. Records *An Americana Christmas (with Norman Blake) Winter Harvest *The Bottom Line Encore Collection *Vassar's Jazz (Golden Anniversary) Winter Harvest *Back Porch Swing Chrome Records *Dead Grass Cedar Glen Music Group *20 Fiddle Tunes & Waltz Favorites *Full Circle OMS Records *Will the Circle be Unbroken (1972) Capitol Records *Will the Circle Be Unbroken: Volume Two (1989) Capitol Records *Will the Circle Be Unbroken, Volume III (2002) Capitol Records *Old & In the Gray (2002) Acoustic Disc *Runaway Fiddle – Buddy Spicher and Vassar Clements OMS Records *Livin' with the Blues Acoustic Disc *We Are All One – Michael Falzarano (2008) Woodstock Records *I Got Blues for Ya – Michael Falzarano (2014) Hypnotation Records References External links *Vassar Clements -biography *Noted fiddler played often in the Shoals *Recording: Vassar Clements, Last Chance Saloon, Poughkeepsie, NY 1976 Part 1 *Recording: Vassar Clements, Last Chance Saloon, Poughkeepsie, NY 1976 Part 2 *Recording: Vassar Clements, Last Chance Saloon, Poughkeepsie, NY 1976 Part 3 *Recording: Vassar Clements, Last Chance Saloon, Poughkeepsie, NY 1976 Part 4 *Recording: Vassar Clements, Last Chance Saloon, Poughkeepsie, NY 1976 Part 5 *Recording: Vassar Clements, Byron Berline, & others, Culpeper- Warrenton 1973 *Descriptions of recordings and images of Vassar Clements can be found at the State Archives of Florida's Florida Folklife Collection web page Category:American bluegrass fiddlers Category:People from Calhoun County, Florida Category:Deaths from lung cancer Category:1928 births Category:2005 deaths Category:Grammy Award winners Category:20th-century American musicians Category:People from Kissimmee, Florida Category:Country musicians from Florida Category:Old & In the Way members Category:Bluegrass Album Band members "
"aneroid barometer. The barometer question is an example of an incorrectly designed examination question demonstrating functional fixedness that causes a moral dilemma for the examiner. In its classic form, popularized by American test designer professor Alexander Calandra (1911–2006), the question asked the student to "show how it is possible to determine the height of a tall building with the aid of a barometer." The examiner was confident that there was one, and only one, correct answer, which is by calculating the difference in pressure at the top and bottom of the building. Contrary to the examiner's expectations, the student responded with a series of completely different answers. These answers were also correct, yet none of them proved the student's competence in the specific academic field being tested. The barometer question achieved the status of an urban legend; according to an internet meme, the question was asked at the University of Copenhagen and the student was Niels Bohr.http://naturelovesmath-en.blogspot.in/2011/06/niels- bohr-barometer-question-myth.html The Kaplan, Inc. ACT preparation textbook describes it as an "MIT legend",Kaplan, p. 52. and an early form is found in a 1958 American humor book.Reader's Digest Treasury of Wit & Humor, p. 303 However, Calandra presented the incident as a real-life, first-person experience that occurred during the Sputnik crisis.Calandra, Alexander, "Angels on a Pin". Reproduced in Barnes et al., pp. 228-229. p. 229. Calandra's essay, "Angels on a Pin", was published in 1959 in Pride, a magazine of the American College Public Relations Association.Pride, volumes 3-4 (1959). American College Public Relations Association. p. 11. It was reprinted in Current Science in 1964,Attribution and date (Current Science (Teacher's Edition), 44 (January 6–10, 1964), pp. 1-2.) as in: Van Cleve Morris et al. (1969). Modern movements in educational philosophy. Houghton Mifflin. p. 82. in Saturday Review in 1968Attribution and date (Saturday Review, December 21, 1968) as in Weimer, p. 234. and included in the 1969 edition of Calandra's The Teaching of Elementary Science and Mathematics.Attribution and year of publication ("Published in the AIChE Journal vol. 15 no. 2, 1969, p. 13. ") as in Sanders, pp. 196-197. Calandra's essay became a subject of academic discussion.Discussed by Calandra et al. in: Van Cleve Morris et al. (1969). Modern movements in educational philosophy. Houghton Mifflin. It was frequently reprinted since 1970,Reproduced in entirety in: Muse Milton (1970). Selected readings for the introduction to the teaching profession. McCutchan Pub. Corp. , pp. 100-103. making its way into books on subjects ranging from teaching,Reproduced in entirety in Barnes et al., pp. 228-229; paraphrased in Herson, pp. 21-22 etc. writing skills,Reproduced in entirety in: Skwire, David (1994). Writing with a thesis: a rhetoric and reader. Harcourt Brace College Publishers. . pp. 40-42. workplace counselingReproduced in entirety, in German, in: Otto F. Kernberg (2005). WIR: Psychotherapeuten über sich und ihren "unmöglichen" Beruf. Schattauer Verlag. . pp. 318-319. and investment in real estateReproduced in part in: Allen, pp. 12-13. to chemical industry,Paraphrased in: Sanders, pp. 196-197. computer programmingParaphrased in Peter van der Linden (1994). Expert C programming: deep C secrets. Prentice Hall PTR. . p. 344. and integrated circuit design.Reproduced in entirety in: Jim Williams (1992). Analog Circuit Design: Art, Science and Personalities. Newnes. . pp. 3-4. Calandra's account A colleague of Calandra posed the barometer question to a student, expecting the correct answer: "the height of the building can be estimated in proportion to the difference between the barometer readings at the bottom and at the top of the building".A classic in-depth discussion of the subject was presented in 1823 by Rev. Baden Powell in Measurement of Heights by the Barometer, published in volume 22, numbers I through V, of the Annals of Philosophy. For a modern presentation of the same subject, see Silverman, pp. 40-48. The particular formula sought by Calandra's examiner is marked with index 2.12 on page 41. The student provided a different, and also correct answer: "Take the barometer to the top of the building. Attach a long rope to it, lower the barometer to the street, then bring it up, measuring the length of the rope. The length of the rope is the height of the building."Calandra, Alexander, "Angels on a Pin". Reproduced in Barnes et al., pp. 228-229. p. 228. The examiner and Calandra, who was called to advise on the case, faced a moral dilemma. According to the format of the exam, a correct answer deserved a full credit. But issuing a full credit would have violated academic standards by rewarding a student who had not demonstrated competence in the academic field that had been tested (physics). Neither of two available options (pass or fail) was morally acceptable. Calandra asked the student the same question, and received a wealth of different answers including dropping the barometer from the top of the building and timing its fall with a stopwatch; trading the barometer to the building's superintendent in return for the information wanted; creating two small pendulums and measuring the variation of g from the ground to the top of the building; creating a pendulum as high as the building and measuring its period; and comparing the length of the shadows of the building and the barometer. The student admitted that he knew the expected "correct" answer, but was fed up with the professor's "teaching him how to think ... rather than teaching him the structure of the subject." Internet meme According to Snopes.com, more recent (1999 and 1988) versions identify the problem as a question in "a physics degree exam at the University of Copenhagen" and the student was Niels Bohr, and includes the following answers:snopes.com: The Barometer Problem * Tying a piece of string to the barometer, lowering the barometer from the roof to the ground, and measuring the length of the string and barometer. * Dropping the barometer off the roof, measuring the time it takes to hit the ground, and calculating the building's height assuming constant acceleration under gravity. * When the sun is shining, standing the barometer up, measuring the height of the barometer and the lengths of the shadows of both barometer and building, and finding the building's height using similar triangles. * Tying a piece of string to the barometer, and swinging it like a pendulum both on the ground and on the roof, and from the known pendulum length and swing period, calculate the gravitational field for the two cases. Use Newton's law of gravitation to calculate the radial altitude of both the ground and the roof. The difference will be the height of the building. * Tying a piece of string to the barometer, which is as long as the height of the building, and swinging it like a pendulum, and from the swing period, calculate the pendulum length. * Marking off the number of barometer lengths vertically along the emergency staircase, and multiplying this with the length of the barometer. * Trading the barometer for the correct information with the building's janitor or superintendent. * Measuring the pressure difference between ground and roof and calculating the height difference (the expected answer). Interpretations Professor of physics Mark Silverman used what he called "The Barometer-Story formula" precisely for explaining the subject of pressure and recommended it to physics teachers. Silverman called Calandra's story "a delightful essay that I habitually read to my class whenever we study fluids ... the essay is short, hilarious and satisfying (at least to me and my class)."Silverman, p. 40. Financial advisor Robert G. Allen presented Calandra's essay to illustrate the process and role of creativity in finance. "Creativity is born when you have a problem to solve. And as you can see from this story ["Angels on a Pin"] there are many ways of solving a problem. Creativity is the art of looking for solutions that are out of the ordinary, different, unorthodox."Allen, p. 13. O'Meara used the barometer question to illustrate the art of steering students' activities to a desired outcome: "if the question is not aligned [with the desired learning outcome] then the problem becomes an exercise of problem solving for its own value."O'Meara, p. 108. The teacher can steer the students either through careful design of the questions (this rules out barometer questions), or through guiding the students to the desired choices. In case of the original barometer question, the examiner may explicitly say that the problem has more than one solution, insist on applying the laws of physics, or give them the "ending point" of the solution: "How did I discover that the building was 410 feet in height with only a barometer?" Herson used the Calandra account as an illustration of the difference between academic tests and assessment in education. Tests, even the ones designed for reliability and validity, are useful, but they are not sufficient in real-world education.Herson, pp. 20-21. Sanders interpreted Calandra's story as a conflict between perfection and optimal solutions: "We struggle to determine a 'best' answer, when a simple call to a building superintendent (the resource man) would quickly provide adequate information."Sanders, p. 197. FootnotesReferences * Robert G. Allen (2004). Nothing Down for the 2000s: Dynamic New Wealth Strategies in Real Estate. Simon and Schuster. . * Louis B. Barnes, Carl Roland Christensen, Abby J. Hansen (1994). Teaching and the case method: text, cases, and readings. Harvard Business Press. . * Walter Grarzer (2004). Eurekas and euphorias: the Oxford book of scientific anecdotes. Oxford University Press. . * Kaplan ACT Premier Program 2009. Kaplan, Inc. . * Naomi L. Herson (1986), Evaluation for Excellence in Education, in: Evaluation for excellence in education: presentations given at a workshop/seminar. Canadian Education Association. . * Jodi O'Meara (2010). Beyond Differentiated Instruction. Corwin Press. . * Roy E. Sanders (2005). Chemical process safety: learning from case histories. Gulf Professional Publishing. . * Mark P. Silverman (2002). A universe of atoms, an atom in the universe. Springer. . The cited chapter reproduces an earlier publication: ** Mark P. Silverman (1998). Flying High, Thinking Low? What Every Aeronaut Needs To Know. The Physics Teacher. 1998, vol. 36. pp. 288–293. The solution sought by Calandra's examiner is indexed with (4) in the very end of p. 289\. * Maryellen Weimer (2002). Learner-centered teaching: five key changes to practice. John Wiley and Sons. . See also *Manhole cover question *Microsoft interview Category:Professional ethics Category:Urban legends Category:Tests "
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